Bulwark Takes - Michael Fanone Isn't SCARED Of Jan. 6 "F**kers" Like Enrique Tarrio

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Tim Miller and Mike Fanone talk about events at Principles First over the weekend: Dealing with a bomb threat together, being threatened by Enrique Tarrio, and Mike's family all being harassed as well.

Hey guys, it's Tim Miller from The Bulwark. I'm delighted to be here with a glowing Michael Fanone. I mean, the dude like went through some shit and I'm just, I'm over here just monitoring his skincare. What's going on, Fanone? You know, just living the dream, man. Yeah, well, not exactly. You know, Fanone was with me. I was with him, I guess better. I was hiding behind him at the principal's first conference over the weekend when Enrique Tarrio and some of these fuckers who led the attack on the Capitol, you know, came and tried to menace people, tried to pretend to be tough. He brought his little five foot two friend, the MAGA marauder.

And and then the next day, obviously, there was a bomb threat. We don't we don't really know the origin of i'm just i mean man like how do you process all this like that these guys are running around like creating trouble after they after you know you lived through what they did a couple years ago well first of all i mean i think it's important to kind of understand who they are i mean specifically the proud boys um you know This was an organization that we saw pop up during Donald Trump's first presidential campaign. And really where they kind of came into their own was they would violently attack anyone who was opposed to their viewpoints. And they are very much so embedded in the MAGA movement.

Enrique Tarrio kind of emerged as the leader of the group or self-proclaimed leader of the group. He was the one that showed up at the principal's first summit, but he, it seems to me has, you know, kind of different motivations. He's not somebody that likes to get his hands dirty. What he likes to do is create these viral moments, put them out on social media to build his brand, build his profile, and then try to sell people shit. Sell the Proud Boys swag, sell, you know sell the hats and the T-shirts and ammunition magazines that are embroidered with the Proud Boys logo. So for me, it seems as though his motivations are monetary.

And he brought along, like you said, his little the midget menace, Ivan Ranklin. But, you know, they. But they show up. They look like cartoon characters. He wears his little uniform, the Proud Boys uniform. He's got his sunglasses on that he wears indoors. But everybody's wearing a body-worn camera. They're flanked by their little right-wing media guys with their cameras out recording the entire thing. Like I said, they're looking for a viral moment and they're also looking for somebody, you know, bait somebody into an interaction in which they could sue them, whether it's threats or whether it's some physical confrontation.

I mean, that's really what, at least in my mind, what that event was all about. And it's interesting because, you know, as a group that places masculinity in very high regard, you know, where I'm from, the least masculine thing you can do to settle a dispute is sue somebody. So, you know. I don't know, actually, it might be even less masculine to try to settle a dispute by having a flunky videotape you for tiktok while you yell at somebody i don't know like an influence an influencer beef i don't know that's not exactly tough guy material either you know i i guess it would have been cool if we had like a dance-off yeah zoolander um how do you though process that i mean look i'm trying to put myself

it's hard for me to put myself in your shoes because like on the one hand like what you're saying now is very even keel and correct don't give these guys what they want right which is some like little clip that he can use to get attention, to sell things to the incels that like think that he's tough and sit in their basement, et cetera. Don't do that. On the other hand, fuck these guys. Like they instigated the violent attack on all of you

who were just doing your job. And so, you know, maybe they need to be, uh, get a taste of their own medicine, right? Like I, I, I understand would understand the second impulse. It has to be a little tough to, you know, restrain. Yeah, no, I mean, listen, like I, I was a cop for 20 years, so it's not the first time that somebody has called me, uh, you know, a mean name. I tried to bait you. Right. Yeah, exactly. time that somebody has called me a mean name. Yeah. I tried to bait you. Right. Yeah, exactly. That being said, I mean, you're right. I'm of the mindset that the appropriate emotions to be feeling right now are anger and outrage.

And so I met that moment with anger and outrage. And I told Enrique Tarrio exactly what I think about him. And quite frankly, I told him who he is, which is a convicted, seditious conspirator and a traitor to this country. And I also called Ivan Raikkonen a bald headed bitch, which is also what he is. True. Accurate. It's important to be accurate um when you're leveling criticisms uh particularly on the bulwark um you know so i played a clip of you from when you're on stage so folks who don't have the backstory so this is an event with a bunch of different panel discussions um you and harry dunn akil ganel were on stage kind of discussing January 6th. That was before, you know, these guys showed up. And when you were up there,

you talked about how the pardons were in part motivated by Trump wanting to have, you know, some muscle, wanting to have some people out there that he thinks will, you know, create trouble on his behalf and, you know, have his own militia or whatever. And so how do you, like, what, you know, how do you kind of balance like that impulse with like the performative side of it? Like, you know, how much of it do you think is like real nefarious people should be scared? And

how much do you think is performative? I guess is my question. No, I mean, first of all, I think people should be extremely Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters. You know, they are they use the tactics, the same tactics of the brown shirts in 1930s and 40s Germany. They harass, they intimidate, and they use violence to suppress anyone that may have opposing viewpoints to their own. And, you know, going back to the pardons, you know, Donald Trump, in pardoning hundreds of violent insurrectionists, many of whom were members of these right-wing extremist groups, created his own civilian militia, you know, an organization or organizations that can go out and commit acts of violence on his behalf, who now feel emboldened to do so because they feel that if they do that,

Donald Trump will simply pardon them. They will face no criminal accountability. And so I think Americans most certainly should be concerned. They should be angry. They should be outraged. They should be raising this at every town hall meeting, calling their members of Congress, calling every elected official in their district and letting them know that this is absolutely unacceptable. Yeah. Yeah. Talking to Ryan Goodman about the legal side of this yesterday, but like there was on these pardons, there was another like situation where one of the guys that got pardoned when the police went to his home, he had grenades, he just saw it off shotgun, he had some other illegal weapons, he had some classified documents, I guess he took from the army. And the DOJ issued a statement yesterday that said, no, all that stuff is also included in the pardon.

And that speaks more to your point about how, you know, like he wants these guys out here menacing people, right? Like the idea that, you know, if the notion was just, oh, I want people to have a clean bill of health for what happened on January 6th because I thought it was BS. Obviously, I disagree with that. But like, if that was the only intention, then you wouldn't have your Department of Justice saying, oh, I also want to cover this guy who had grenades at his house. Right. It also speaks to the seriousness of, you know, some of these individuals' intentions. I mean, this is someone who has grenades in their house. Right.

You know, individuals who have- You got any grenades over there? I don't have any grenades. I wouldn't tell you if I did. You know, I mean. Weapons charges for people that are prohibited from possessing firearms. I mean, all of that stuff should be deeply concerning to every average everyday Americans. I mean, you have an active, you know, extremist groups who have found an ally in the president of the United States. I mean, that's absolutely insane. Not to get too personal, but I do have to ask because the reports are out there, but like these guys are also coming

from your mother. Is that true? Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, pretty much every member of my family, my immediate family has suffered these threats and harassment. My mother seemed to bear the brunt of it. You know, she's been swatted in recent months. She had a confrontation with an individual that confronted her while she was raking leaves in her front yard, screamed at her that her son was a traitor and threw shit on her. She's had bricks thrown at the house. And, you know, again, after Enrique Tarrio and his merry bunch of men showed up to the principal's first summit,

you know, obviously the principal's summit was targeted with a bomb threat the following day. And my mother's house was also targeted with a bomb threat in that same bomb threat. And then since then, in the past 24 hours, all of my immediate family has received harassing phone calls, threats and other forms of harassment. So it's become a family affair. Man, how do you keep even keel on this stuff? The rage is building up inside me right now. The idea that somebody would come for your mother, I don't understand, honestly, how you control it. When I'm engaged, I'm engaged. When I disengage, I completely disengage. I try to keep my world very small when I'm not out attending these summits and interacting with people. But also, I mean, I'll be honest with you, Tim, like having opportunities like

the bulwark to come out and talk about these things is incredibly cathartic for me. And it makes me feel like I have the ability to affect some change or at least let people know what the hell is going on in this country, because so many Americans are indifferent or oblivious. You know, only now are we starting to kind of see what's in store for all of us, regardless of who you supported in the last election. Donald Trump doesn't give a shit. You know, he's going to do what he's going to do, and that's it. And so, you know, maybe now people will start to see that this behavior is unacceptable. Yeah.

Well, man, you can have a platform with us anytime to vent. Door's always open for venting because I just, man, I got a lot to get off my chest. I didn't go through any of the shit that you went through, but these fucking pussies, man, I just, I can't fucking take it. They're so loathsome and so cowardly. But we can vent about them more another day. I want to pick a random one other thing while I got you though. Because if we're going to do politics and affect change, one group that the Democrats have really struggled with in convincing about their, you know,

the negative side of the MA mega movement is guys like you like to be for lack of a better like description right like it looks like you got a little american flag back there working you know you worked in law enforcement um a lot of law enforcement people went for trump you got tats i assume you've you know know, your way around his in or some chewing, you know, some dip, like, you know, you might know some MMA fighters, right? Like, this is like, this is like, these are the guys that have been moving more and more towards Trump and MAGA. And so I just wonder, like, why do you think that is? And do you think that there's some kind of message or some kind of way manner of speaking that might like break

through about the kind of nefarious shit that they're supporting because like i'm not talking about the dudes with the red hats and like there's some people that are unreachable i'm talking about the more of like the non-political you know kind of guys working class guys that have been uh drawn in by trump and this really does, I think, to all politicians prior to Donald Trump's arrival on the scene. But there is always this, you know, very kind of overeducated, elitist, condescending speak that was used when, you know, when addressing the American people. And it seemed that there was more and more and more of a disconnect between politicians, whether at the local level or the national level, and the people that they were there to represent.

I mean, for me, where Democrats, you know, completely lost me. And I was always very apolitical. I voted for both political parties. But I think when I started to pay attention was to defund the police movement. You know, I was a cop for 20 years. I understood policing and our relationship with the communities. And I knew that there was work to be done. I certainly thought that it was worth having a conversation. And then I saw, you know, the Democrats, um, really just, instead of have the, having the conversation in a productive way, they used it to bash cops to try

to get votes. Um, and so for me, that, that was it. Um, and, and unfortunately, you know, you know, when it comes to, you know, applying that to today, you know, the Democrats really they've kind of taken this, you know, we're just going to sit back and and see what happens or let Donald Trump, you know, destroy himself, so to speak, as if we haven't learned the lesson over and over and over again. That's never going to happen. And, you know, for me, it's disheartening because I'm somebody, you know, like yourself, who's so avidly against what's happening in this country at this moment. And to watch, you know, I guess the only political party that still is concerned about democracy sit back and wait and watch. It's pathetic. Obviously, I agree with that and been banging the drum on that. Just back to the defunding the police thing,

because then thinking about, okay, let's be constructive, right? Like, how do you break through? And I don't know if FBI agents are not as, whatever, sympathetic as regular cops, right? Like, it's a little bit, it's a little different. It's obviously different than somebody that's like a neighborhood cop right but still like it's the republicans right now that are fucking over cops at least federal law enforcement right and i do feel like at some level there's got to be a way to break through with folks by talking about just like the damage that they're doing to federal law enforcement, to vets, like who are losing their jobs, to regular, you know, people say like,

oh, federal government employees, bureaucrats, and like they picture some like guy in a suit on K Street. Like there are a lot of people who work for the federal government that are working class people, you know? So I'm wondering if you think there's kind of an opportunity there. I mean, unfortunately, you know, I've been out here for four years and I really think that what's going to have to happen is it has to impact individual Americans lives. Yeah. You know, it's got to come. It's got to either been laid off from their federal jobs or fired from their federal jobs or, you know, whatever the hell Doge is calling it, dismissed. And, you know, that obviously is resonating with people when they can't put food on the table and they can't support their families. And then to add insult to injury, they're being villainized for being a part of some government agency. Scheme, fraud. It's all fraud. They're stealing.

USAID workers that have dedicated their lives to doing things that are super fun, like going to third world countries to deliver bags of rice to starving people. You know, they're lunatic leftists that are, you know, destroying the fabric of our country and they have to be purged. It's insane. Insane. All right.

We're going to be bringing you back. I want to pick your brain on this as in a feat you know uh gw grad that lived in the denver suburbs growing up you know i like sometimes i do my best but like i feel i've got a cultural gap sometimes with some of these folks that uh some of these voters that we're struggling with um to convince so i want to bring you back chat about that and unfortunately i think there's gonna be fucking more news on the law enforcement front and the pardon front and the proud boy front so i have plenty of plenty of things to talk about all right bro all right man look forward to it thanks so much to michael finone you're a great american everybody subscribe to the feed and uh we'll be seeing you soon